Mayors from towns heavily affected by Colorado's oil and gas boom asked state lawmakers for help Tuesday. But some lawmakers said local governments have to take some matters into their own hands.

Rifle Mayor Keith Lambert told members of a legislative committee studying severance tax revenues that the population of his Western Slope town of 9,000 is set to double as soon as housing now under construction is finished and filled.

The town needs more than $60 million of infrastructure - from a new wastewater treatment facility to highway repair.

"We need help," Lambert said.

But some members of the committee suggested that local governments need to do more to meet their own needs.

"When Highlands Ranch was going to build a new community, they didn't come ask the state for help," said Sen. Chris Romer, D-Denver.

Romer said that while severance taxes were meant in part to help alleviate the impact of the industry on local governments, those same governments have several other options for addressing their needs, including increasing local taxes, collecting impact fees from the industry or creating special tax districts.

Meanwhile, as the committee works to revamp the state's severance tax policies, it is looking at what neighboring states are doing.

Wyoming and New Mexico have permanent trust funds, which, over decades, have grown to billions of dollars. Colorado - with lower taxes and different policies - does not.

Rep. Bernie Beuscher, a Mesa County Democrat, said lawmakers are struggling to balance the immediate needs of the affected communities with the long-term needs of the state.

"Is it our job to distribute the money to the communities or to say we'd better put the money away for the future?" he asked.